British businesses are backing the Mail’s campaign for Jeremy Hunt to end the postcode lottery for diagnosing a devastating bone disease that affects millions of women.
Business in the Community (BITC), whose founding patron is King Charles, is one of the leading corporate groups supporting our campaign for the Chancellor to provide UK-wide funding for early diagnosis.
Support: Queen Camilla campaigned for years to raise awareness about osteoporosis, a disease that affected her mother.
Queen Camilla was for many years a tireless campaigner to raise awareness about osteoporosis after her mother died in 1994 as a result of the disease.
Her Majesty has previously spoken of the “horror” of watching her mother, the Honorable Rosalind Shand, suffer a “paralysing, slow, agonizing death” from osteoporosis, where bones lose density and sufferers are more vulnerable to the fractures.
Mary Macleod, chief executive of BITC, whose members include FTSE 100 giants such as Marks & Spencer, Legal & General and BP, said: “Early diagnosis of diseases such as osteoporosis, together with support from employers, can allow that more people stay in the workforce longer and advance in their careers.’
Companies that have registered as BITC members employ around 7 million people or more than a fifth of the UK workforce.
The Mail on Sunday wants the Chancellor to provide funding for fracture liaison services across all NHS trusts in England and Wales.
These offer an osteoporosis assessment and scan to anyone over 50 who presents to A&E with a low-impact fracture, for example from a fall from a height.
Therefore, they identify the disease early and can prevent painful fractures that shorten life.
Early diagnosis could keep women in the workforce
The British Chamber of Commerce, the country’s main business organisation, said the campaign is “important” and “relevant” because employers are suffering from staff shortages with “more than a million vacancies”.
“Early diagnosis will undoubtedly help those affected return to work,” a spokesperson said.
The group, led by CEO Shevaun Haviland, is a network of 50,000 companies with six million employees.
One of the UK’s largest unions also supported the campaign.
Diagnose early: The Mail campaign wants the Chancellor to provide funding for fracture liaison services across all NHS trusts in England and Wales.
Wendy Bartlam, head of corporate services at the 500,000-member GMB union, said:
‘GMB supports the campaign so that workers with osteoporosis can get the healthcare they deserve.’
British businesses are being hit by high levels of “economic inactivity” in the UK, which experts say is hurting the economy.
Some nine million people do not appear on unemployment records but have left the labor market, many of them due to health problems, including osteoporosis.
Fracture liaison services are present in 57 countries around the world, but in England and Wales they are only available in around half of NHS trusts.
They are offered throughout Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The Royal Osteoporosis Society estimates that rolling it out across the UK will cost £30m a year.
I unconditionally support the campaign. Retail, especially, depends on the tireless contribution of women and older colleagues.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium
It argues that this outlay would quickly pay for itself with savings to the NHS in the cost of fractures in terms of hospital beds, emergency treatment and long-term care for broken limbs.
Further support was provided by Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium.
It represents 200 large retail chains, including Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Boots, where many employees are women.
‘I unconditionally support the campaign. Retail, in particular, depends on the tireless contribution of women and older colleagues,” she said.
“An early diagnosis of osteoporosis can mean the difference between a life with chronic pain and early treatment for a longer, happier life.”
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, the association of more than 750 businesses in the leisure sector, added: “The health and wellbeing of our staff is very important and that is why we are supporting the campaign.
“His call for every NHS Trust to have early diagnosis services for people living with osteoporosis would benefit thousands of people over the age of 50 and allow them to continue their lives and careers uninterrupted.”
Kate Nicholls, UK hospitality chief executive, says early diagnosis for people living with osteoporosis would benefit thousands of people over 50, allowing them to continue with their careers.
Craig Beaumont, Head of External Affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses, which represents 200,000 businesses, said: “Since COVID we have seen an increase in economic inactivity among over-50s reporting long-term illnesses.”
He added that the government should work with osteoporosis campaigners and the NHS to “help people recover and take their rightful place in our economy and society”.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development is also backing the campaign, as is Mumsnet, along with politicians from all three main parties in both the Lords and Commons.
This is an economic obvious, as well as a medical one.
Craig Jones, chief executive, Royal Osteoporosis Society
Osteoporosis is the fourth most damaging health condition in terms of disability and premature death in the UK, beaten only by coronary heart disease, dementia and lung cancer.
Calculations by experts at the Royal Osteoporosis Society show that a modest annual investment of £30 million to expand fracture linkage services would more than pay for itself, leading to an overall benefit of £440 million in the first five years.
Craig Jones, the society’s executive director, said that with universal early diagnosis, “people’s first fracture may be their last.” This is both an economic and a medical no-brainer.’
It added that implementing fracture liaison services in England and Wales could prevent up to 750,000 of the 2.6 million sick days caused by fractures each year.
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